A new mentoring programme for managers

Berkhamsted

Leaving a LEGACY

A mentoring programme aims to equip the new wave of golf club managers with the vital skills they need to be a success

Berkhamsted’s Ben Hunter, left, and Stuart Gillett, of Legacy Golf Advisors, right

Time. It waits for no-one, they say, and how many of us complain we don’t have enough of it?

The inbox is full, the phone is ringing, and it feels like the members are lining up outside your door to have their say. Dealing with those spinning plates – not to mention all the operational and legislative issues that come across the desk – might be one of the biggest challenges of being a golf club manager.

“Everybody will tell you they don’t have enough time to do their jobs,” says Legacy Golf Advisors’ Stuart

Gillett, as he outlines one of the pivotal messages he is trying to get across to Berkhamsted’s Ben Hunter.

The 25-year-old assistant club manager has entered into a yearlong mentorship programme with the one-time general manager of Golf at Goodwood and former co-head of European Tour Destinations. It has the full backing of senior management at the Hertfordshire club.

Gillett’s new venture aims to “support clubs and individuals to get better”. At Golf at Goodwood, he helped mould the early careers of prominent industry figures including Amy Yeates, Chris Fitt and Gary Beves.

The important lessons are coming early. “It’s trying to make Ben understand that, at this point in his career, he will only get busier as he moves up the ladder. So how does he deal with that?”

The mantra is ensuring the new wave of golf club managers can avoid the operational banana-skins which can arise from inexperience.

“Stepping up from being an assistant manager to becoming the number one at a golf club is a huge challenge” explains Gillett.

“Even the best of the newer managers, like Ben, simply don’t have enough years under their

belts to have come across the huge variety of challenges that general managers typically face.

“Although he receives a great deal of coaching and support from Howard Craft, we believe that Ben will benefit greatly from being able to access advice from outside of the day-to-day business.

“Berkhamsted has an admirably clear set of values, and this mentorship will help Ben to champion those values every time he interacts with the club’s staff, members and other customers.

“It will also help him to make the right decisions when he comes across situations he hasn’t

Ben Hunter, assistant club manager

encountered before.”

The mentoring programme began with setting goals and objectives, reviewing actions, and then working on how to translate those into the workplace.

It’s very easy to learn things, believes Gillett, but the key comes in making that knowledge work in practice.

The pair, both of whom are GCMA members, meet remotely, thanks to Covid restrictions, but will come together quarterly when restrictions allow.

Gillett says: “What I want it to do is trigger some thought processes in Ben that gets him to think about things in a slightly different way to perhaps he would have done.”

The focus doesn’t fall on the day-to-day. “That has to come from myself”, explains Hunter. “It’s more about the big picture, making me a more valuable asset for the club.”

Take a specific example. Hunter’s a doer. He’s never happier when he’s got a list of tasks in front of him and he can work through them in methodical fashion.

Perhaps that works for an assistant. But a general manager has to have a wider perspective.

“I love structure,” Hunter says. “But if I want to evolve into being a top club manager, it’s not about how many emails you tick off in a day.

“It’s about spending time with your members, and with your staff. So one of the things Stuart’s challenged me on is to put my out of office on. Between 10am and 12 noon every say, my out of office comes on and says ‘Sorry, I’m currently away from my desk and with my members, I’ll get back to you later.’

“It’s just changing my mindset, from doing the job list to actually being with people. I think that is just a little insight into how I’m going to adapt to that next level.”

“It’s just trying to get him to understand that if he’s not sat at his desk working, that’s not a bad thing,” adds Gillett.

“The younger generation do think that this is the only place they can be seen to be doing work. I shared something with him the other day, which was go for a walk.

“At lunchtime, take someone with you from the office. Be the person that shows about wellbeing – getting out in the fresh air. We all know what it’s like in those office environments. The first person to leave is looked at like ‘it’s 5pm, they’re off’. If Ben gets to work at six in the morning for a competition and goes at 3, I don’t want him to think he’s done anything wrong.”

Getting him to think like a senior manager, to increase his profile at the club and to become an influencer, is at the heart of these real-world stories. Giving the number two the airtime they need to develop in a busy club can be a challenge, but even at this early stage of their relationship, Hunter believes Gillett’s gentle probing is starting to pay dividends.

“I’m just noticing a slight change in my mindset. It’s channelling my enthusiasm into the right areas. I think that’s probably the key phrase.”

Once the year is up, Gillett and Hunter will continue with a personal development plan, setting career aspirations and getting feedback from his peers at the club. The whole programme is about setting him up for the challenges Hunter will face in the longer term.

“There isn’t going to be a line in the sand where he suddenly changes to become a better manager or a finished article,” says Gillett.

“What I want for Ben is for him to have challenged that enthusiasm and to start thinking more like a senior manager.

“The deliverable of that comes through the things we discuss. It’s really important in any of these programmes that the mentee takes on a lot of the discussion. That’s been great with Ben because he is happy to talk.”

To learn more about Legacy Golf Advisors, visit legacygolfadvisors. com

Berkhamsted

Picture of Ben Hunter and Berkhamsted courtesy of Andy Hiseman